Academics - Former Research

This page presents a retrospective look at some of the research projects I worked on during my academic years. More details will be added as I review and reflect on these ideas.

Graduate Work

My graduate research interest started with visual cognition and scientific visualization - I wanted
to understand how practitioners could draw conclusions and solve problems by looking at images on a computer screen.
I was fortunate to have Dr. Ron Arkin, noted roboticist, as my advisor, even though I wasn't
working in robotics. Due to my familiarity with medical imaging, he involved me in a research project with radiologists that eventually converged with my research question, and became the subject of my dissertation. My thesis
included aspects of visual cognition, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, and
medical imaging.

Visual Interaction: A Link Between Perception and Problem-Solving

Intelligent Assistance Agents

The "intelligence" of each system included specific knowledge about the user's task-related perception and problem solving activities. Through a blackboard architecture, it was designed to automatically deliver supportive information at the appropriate times. In the perception part of the cycle, this might include automated image enhancements, while in the problem solving part of the cycle, this entailed tracking strategies, proposing diagnostic solutions, and retrieving additional related information from the domain-specific knowledge base.

Human-Centered Computing and User-Centered Design

Eventually my interests moved away from computational AI techniques, and focused more on topics related to human-computer interaction (HCI). Through learn-by-doing studios, I taught computer science students how to set up usability studies and incorporate qualitative and quantitative research into their computational designs. Several collaborative projects came out of this work that also extended into the areas of human-information interaction and human-robot interaction.